In addition to Dance Ball in part 2, Landing a few Mass Holds will net you reinvites as well. For the crystal, just bake it in the FW..soon as it takes dmg, nuke it. Otherwise, you're job is to buff, Mass Hold and Pike. in that order usually.

Ahh, now Mass Holds I can do.

I very rarely seem to see holds go off when I'm Shrouding on my Paladin, so I had assumed the devils were probably immune. That said, those fights are usually so messy with spell effects it's hard to see what's happening, and things die so fast when you're autocritting, maybe I just didn't notice.

Also: Heighten? Do crystals get saves?

Boatman wrote on Jan 30^th, 2011 at 6:08am:


First things first, get flagged, very important step.  I cannot explain how significant this step is, it is just that monumental.

Only buffs you need, haste and rage.  You CAN use fire resist if there are no paladins or rangers.  I mean really, what the hell are they doing with the blue bars, right? Also, GH? WTF, comes on a belt and a necklace.  Tell em to use the charge.  If they dont have one, tell them when they get one, they will appreciate it all the more.

What you have for PT 1 is almost correct.  If portalkeepers spawn, throw dd's everywhere then telly out.

PT 2 was said, but I will clarify.  Think of it when you were on your paladin, what would of made all that trash in a big pile faster to kill? That's right, mass hold.  Just throw 3 firewalls on the crystal after the first name goes down.  It will die almost instantly.

PT 3 your job is to learn how to do all the puzzles quickly in your head.  At a glance and you should be able to do them, maybe 2 glances if you are just above retarded, like 75~90 on the IQ scale.  Always run your own water before helping noobs that refuse to learn how to a simple fucking 3x3, and the even easier 4x4.  Almost all noobs pull up a solver for the 5x5, so dont worry about it so much.  After doing peoples puzzles for them, mock and ridicule them.  Also, for those that CAN do their own puzzles, go in and fuck em up.  Just cuz you can.  Also, grease people, grease their puzzles, grease them when they run near a rune and trigger it while healing yourself.  The goal is to kill them.  The trick, you cannot use any kind of item or spell that would make you immune to grease or sleetstorm.

PT 4 is wrong.  Never use disco ball, in fact, get rid of the stupid spell.  Mass hold the trash then grease it.  If it goes for 2 rounds then throw a dd up on the melee and say I am out of here, fuck you gimp retards, then telly out.

For part 5, haste and rage, then GO!  Fuck any other buff.  If they need a fire, hit up the ranger or paladin.  If there are no rangers or paladins, or the ones in their are to fucking retarded to have resist loaded, relieve the burden from the clerics and fire resist everyone.  Only under those 2 circumstances though.  Just throw a fresh haste and rage for harry and then polar ray the shit out of him.  Noone knows you dont have potency so dont worry about it.   When you do get potency then you can think to yourself, "nice, I do more dmg".  Also, superior freeze 8 comes on a belt in ToD and Bastion of power called Telvi's Sash.

Remember, save the last 100 sp or so to grease the fuck out of everyone when harry gets down to 10%.

This is the official be an ass and yet useful strategy guide for casters in the shroud.

PS- whenever I say grease I mean either grease or sleet storm or whatever you use to annoy the  shit out of people.

Epoch wrote on Jan 30^th, 2011 at 7:36am:


Epoch's advice here is really mean, but also very accurate and useful.

Quote:


If you cast that fucking ball in my shroud, I will fucking kill you.

Don't listen to Epoch, throw disco balls everywhere. The more the better. Here is your role:

Part 1: Throw discoballs over all the portals that spawn. Don't kill anything, the melee get pissed if you do because they like to kill things.
Part 2: Disco ball the entire center field. I normally put up at least 3 to make things easy on the healers. After you do that, put a Dancing Ball on the crystal so if anything spawns from it, you'll be safe. Then yell at the gimp arcane archer who joined to stop piking and kill the crystal.
Part 3: Dancing ball the corridors to cc the blades while running around hitting the circular switches that open the secret chests underwater. If they don't open after your first try, they reset, so try to do it faster.
Part 4: CC the trash at the beginning with about 4  disco balls (2 in front, 2 behind), and 2 grease or ice storm spells. Then cast an ice storm on Harry and /afk.
Part 5: Same as Part 4

Milton wrote on Jan 30^th, 2011 at 12:12pm:


Even my squishtastic drow wizzy prefers a couple webs and a mass hold for each spawn in part four...

Some real advice:

Part 1: Learn the portal spawning order and go wail everything that spawns. If you are trying to DPS the portal, you are doing it wrong.
Part 2: Offer to solo the elemental when you get some DPS. Otherwise just firewall the crystal and /pike. I highly suggest you pick up a Potency 6 item (disintegrate will 1 shot the crystal, so even if you fuck up and let the fwalls go out, you can kill it with a disint). Run Bastion a few time for Telvi's sash (it's a fairly common drop and it will increase your dps alot). Kill yourself looking for an eardweller, its THAT cool. Get your hold DC's up to somewhat good levels and hold everything at the beginning.
Part 3: Learn to puzzle, otherwise follow Epoch's directions. If you can't learn to puzzle, learn to kite the blades.
Part 4: Hold the stuff at the beginning, then redbar using polar rays and telvi's sash/eardweller. Save about 500 mana in case your party is full of gimps and it goes to a second round. Save about 30 mana so you can teleport out if things go to a 3rd round. 
Part 5: Learn to solo the elemental, then redbar on harry.

I agree with a few above, don't throw disco balls. It's the biggest waste of SP a caster has in the Shroud. If you're healers can't handle healing through a 10 mob fight then just recall. You're there to kill and help speed up the process, not lag half the party out with a 6 disco balls. DPS or holds FTW.

So, firstly haste, heightened web, and mass hold will be your most important spells in there after that come firewall and wail.

Buffing: Rage and haste, spot buffs if needed

Part 1: get in a good shroud group and learn the portal order...you always want to be ahead of the group beating the portals down.  Use wail on the spawns, FOD any that survive the wail.  Haste the group as needed...if normal shroud takes more than one extended rage, find a new group

Part 2:  Get to south, haste and heightened web, mass hold...monsters die.  Center gets pulled, use targeting reticule to aim at crystal and throw max, emp, height, ext firewall at crystal.

Part 3: 3x3 puzzles are cake, 4x4's are even easier...learn them.  5x5's can be difficult even for vets, so don't be afraid to say you're having trouble. Firewall only center crystals if needed... Knock doors if needed to get it done, and run water until they're done.

Part 4:  Webs, wails, haste, rage...polar ray, frost lance, force spells on Harry and FOD/wail gnolls if it takes more than one round.

Part 5: Rage, haste, bake rock elemental as needed, nuke Harry.

And that's pretty much it in a nutshell

Saal

Cabocleer wrote on Jan 30^th, 2011 at 1:28pm:


You forgot the most important one of all...GLITTERDUST!!!!

Boatman wrote on Jan 30^th, 2011 at 1:41pm:


I'm usually one of those guys running just ahead of the pack... and sometimes i take a wrong turn... always amusing to see 3 or 4 of you peel off the pack and follow me.